[Erosive drinks on the icelandic market.]

Dental erosion seems to be a growing health problem in Iceland. The international literature indicates that beverages such as carbonated drinks and fruit juices have considerable potential to causes tooth erosion. The aim of this study was to assess the erosive potential of drinks on the Icelandic market.

This study measured, on three occasions: (1) pH before titration and (2) the volume of 1.0M sodium hydroxide required to raise the pH of 50 ml of the beverages to pH 5.5, pH 7.0 and pH 10.0.

The pH before titration ranged from pH 2.03-6.79 and the volume of 0.1M sodium hydroxide required to bring the beverages to pH 5.5 ranged from 0.54 to 5.92ml, pH 7.0 ranged from 0.42 to 7.73ml and pH 10.0 ranged from 2.23 to 9.10ml. This study showed that citrus fruit juices (grapefruit and orange juice) needed the most base to neutralize of the beverages tested. The milk-based beverages had an initial pH above 5.5 and are therefore non-erosive, with the exception of milk-derived lactic acid and drinks containing lactic acid aimed especially at the child market. Carbonated drinks, sport drinks and energy drinks were relatively easy to neutralize despite having a lower pH than fruit drinks.

It is concluded that many soft drinks have considerable erosive potential and several of these are particularly targeted at the age groups found in other Icelandic studies to consume large amounts of soft drinks and to have tooth erosion.